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NewsTuesday July 9th, 2013, 3:42pm

Concealed Carry To Become Law After Legislature Overrides Amendatory Veto

Concealed carry legislation, which the Illinois General Assembly
approved in May, will soon become law now that both the Senate and House have voted to override Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed changes to the legislation Tuesday.

By a 41-17 vote, the Senate voted down Quinn's amendatory veto of the bill, HB 183. Earlier this morning, the House also shot down the
governor's changes with a 77-31 vote. The Senate needed at least 36
votes to override the amendatory veto, while the House needed at least
71 votes.

Illinois' last-in-the-nation ban on concealed carry will
be lifted tonight at 12:01 a.m. A federal appeals court ruled back in
December that the ban was unconstitutional and, after granting
extensions, said Illinois lawmakers had to put legislation on the books
by July 9.

“It’s gonna be a big day for the state of Illinois,”
State Sen. Gary Forby (D-Benton), the bill's main sponsor in the Senate,
told the Chicago Sun-Times. StateRep. Brandon Phelps (D-Harrisburg) sponsored the legislation in the House.

The
Senate did approve at least three changes to the original piece of
legislation Tuesday by a 45-13 vote involving signage and mental health
reporting. Another change included a provision that would
require people with concealed carry permits to let police know during a
stop or detention if they are carrying a weapon. The House is slated to
consider the amendments sometime this afternoon.

State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) issued the following statement after the Senate voted down Quinn's amendatory veto:

I
agree with the governor’s recommended changes; in fact, they are
provisions I included in the concealed-carry plan I introduced. However,
with the stay on the Seventh Circuit’s injunction due to be lifted
tonight and with House members’ decisive rejection of the governor’s
recommendations, a vote against overriding the veto would have been a
vote to allow unrestricted carry, beginning at 12:01 a.m.

Bright
and early tomorrow morning, if we had left no law in place, an
individual would have been legally entitled to walk into a daycare
center or onto a crowded playground, openly armed and severely
intoxicated. Today’s vote guarantees we will take a more responsible
path. Since these negotiations began, a deep concern for public safety
has motivated me; today is no exception. To jeopardize the safety of
children, families and communities for the sake of making a point is
irresponsible in the extreme.

I am encouraged that the Senate
approved some clarifications to the concealed-carry law in a separate
piece of legislation today. As concealed carry is implemented, I
personally commit to revisiting our gun laws as needed to protect the
public, and I am confident my colleagues will join me.

UPDATE 1 (7:01 p.m.): Quinn released the following statement in response to the state legislature's override of his amendatory veto:

Today’s action by members of the General Assembly was extremely disappointing.

Following
a weekend of horrific violence in Chicago in which at least 70 people
were shot and 12 killed, this was the wrong move for public safety in
Illinois.

Members of the Illinois House could not even manage to
pass follow-up legislation that included a few of the critical changes
that I outlined last week, such as improved mental health reporting and
the duty to immediately inform law enforcement officers of the
possession of a loaded concealed weapon.

Throughout the
legislative session, I made clear that any concealed carry law must have
common-sense standards. I pushed for a ban on assault weapons, limits
on high-capacity ammunition magazines and local option for home-rule
communities, among other reasonable restrictions. I met with legislators
regularly and discussed these standards in my State of the State
address and all across the state of Illinois.

Yet, despite my
objections, members of the General Assembly surrendered to the National
Rifle Association in the waning days of session and passed a flawed bill
that allows people to carry guns in establishments that serve alcohol,
and allows people to carry unlimited guns and unlimited high-capacity
ammunition magazines.

In a supreme overreach, this bill even
included the National Rifle Association’s trademark provision – a ban on
future assault weapon bans in home-rule communities – which has nothing
to do with the concealed carry of handguns.

Public safety should never be compromised or negotiated away.

It was wrong on May 31 and it’s wrong today.

We
will keep fighting for these critical provisions that will save lives
and establish a better, more responsible concealed carry law in
Illinois.